The Kingdom of Kicia

Chapter One

        Gods this is boring, Ariel though to herself. Now she remembered why she hated balls. Horrible music, bad dancing, stuffy air, and too tight dresses. She really hated the dresses. But this ball in her opinion, was the worst of them in particular. It was the annual "Soldiers Ball".

For some reason her father, King Ambrose- King of Kicia, thought it was a good idea to invite all of the men who would be training to be in the King's Army to a ball, where they would have the opportunity to dance with the King's three daughters, before they started training. So now she was stuck dancing with a short, chubby man with bad breath, who kept stepping on her feet.

Ariel looked at the clock,  it was only eleven-thirty. She would be here until at least two thirty in the morning she thought to herself, dancing with all these fools. 

The song finally ended and Ariel quickly sprung away from the man, curtsied, and walked away. Drinks she thought, I can hide by the drinks. She quickly found a hiding spot and observed the rest of the ball.

It wasn't hard to find her sisters, Anne who was four years older and Isabel who was two years older. They were, as always, enjoying the ball and the attention. They had a flock of young soldiers surrounding them.

Her sisters reveled in attention, they were the perfect definition of what a princess should be. Kind, caring, intelligent, graceful, and beautiful. The two older sisters looked like their mother had. Anne and Isabel had their mothers auburn hair and green eyes, while Ariel had hair so blonde it was almost white, and bright, piercing blue eyes.

Ariel scanned the room trying to figure out if there was any escape from the horrid ball. She wondered if she could slip away without her father noticing. She looked to him, no such luck, his eyes were on her like a hawk. She thought then that she may be able to fake a stomach or headache. She looked to him again and found him still watching. He slowly shook his head 'no' at her. He must be reading my mind she thought. Her father knew she hated balls, and really wearing dresses in general.

She turned her attention back to her sisters. She couldn't help but be jealous of the easy way they flirted with the men, or how much they loved such mundane things as balls. She ought to be more like them she thought. But that wasn't her, it never would be. She would never love going to lessons, or learning proper ettiquette or wearing itchy, fluffy, dresses that were too big. One of them was for sure to be selected by their father to be Queen, not that Ariel particuraly cared, or wanted to be Queen.

 The King's wife had died 7 years earlier, and was never able to produce a male heir so one of his daughters would be the one to take over the Kingdom of Kicia. Usually in these cases the eldest would take the throne but for some reason the King decided that when all three of the daughters came of age he would pick which one to take over the Kingdom. He had told the villagers and nobles that just because you are born in to something does mean you are necessarily the right one for the job.

Instead of dwelling on her failings as a proper princess and whether or not she would someday be Queen, Ariel turned her mind back to her morning.

"She remembered how she snuck out; out through the window she had gone. She wondered how no one had yet found the rope she tied to her bedpost and repelled down the castle with. Sneaking past the gaurds wasn't too difficult, they were so daft. She thought she would be a perfect gaurd. Princess Ariel may not be as good at her studies as her sisters, but she was cunning. Finally she made it to the weapons and training building, it was supposed to be locked but she had procured a key with simplicity.

Ariel had been going to the weapons room for about a year now. She had always wanted to learn sword play and to be an archer but her father had never allowed it. He had told her Princesses were not made to be soldiers. So she had gone behind his back, she couldn't imagine how angry he would be if he ever found out. That is why no one must ever know, not even those closest to her.

This particular morning Ariel was feeling a little stressed, so she decided to pick up the bow, her favorite weapon. Ariel was self taught with both the sword and the bow. But she prefered to be an archer. She was wicked, she coudn't remember the last time she had missed a bullseye. She began shooting arrow after arrow, increasing distance an difficulty as she went. Once she got to where she could barely make the shot she stopped. This was the one she always. had problems with, but she would make it, she always did. She lined herself up took a deep breath, and just as she was about to let go heard a crashing noise. The string flew out of her hand and the arrow didn't even hit the target. She was scared, one of the gaurds may have seen her so she quickly put her things away and began to make her way back to her quarters."

Ariel woke from her day dream, and thought of how close she could be to being caught and how careless she had been on the way back. Now that she thought of it, she may have seen a shadow down one of the hallways...

Ariel's musings were cut off when a handsome face appeared in her view.

"Excuse me" the dashing soldier said, "but I've noticed you staring at nothing for the past 0 minutes, and that you looked quite bored. So, I was wondering if you would like a dance?"

A dance was about the exact opposite of what Ariel was looking for. So she replied in her usual sarcastic tone, "And why would I want to do that?"

The soldier just flashed her an infuriating and wicked grin and grabbed her hand, pulling her back to the dance floor. When she began to fight him and push him away, he pulled her close and said "Do you reAlly want to draw more attention to yourself than necessary? I'm doing you a favor really, keeping you away from those clumsy dimwits. And making it look good for your father."

"How do you know I don't enjoy dancing?" she replied. "And who says I have to make things look good for the king?"

Another devilish grin. He got close and whispered in her ear "I know a lot more than you think princess".

Right then the song ended, and the dashing soldier slipped away.